A blog devoted to my interests which include anarchism and social movements, history, archeology, and anything else I choose to write about.

Friday, August 22, 2014

Anarchism, Chile, Self-management, Argentina

The following translations or summaries:

Chile

Declaration of the
Libertarian Left Before the Aug 21 Mobilization (*)

Chilean
people are out in the street to push for real changes in education
and for a new system of public education. The Libertarian Left
supports the demands of the popular movements in the streets for
free, public and quality education and for the social rights we
struggle actively for.

The
New Majority Government has lost its energy to realize the reforms
that it promised during the presidential election. On the contrary it
has given into the logic of the right-wing parties and is promoting
merely cosmetic measures, not those that would transform the system
of education. The New Majority is using its forces to coopt the
student demands, subordinate the student movement and the social
movements in order to create a "new accord" with the Right
and the bosses...

This
example (the struggle of students and workers for the reform. LG)
demonstrates to us that the transforming reforms come solely from the
organized student movement which has demonstrated a willingness to
dialogue, to mobilize and as a consequence link with social
demands...

We
salute and greet the national mobilization of August
21 with the conviction that whatever reform will be institutionalized
the main actor will be the
social movement and it alone can respond against the interests of the
elite.

For
Liberty and Socialism,

Frente
de Estudiantes Libertarios Chile

UMLEM

Oganizacion
Communista Libertaria

Izquierda
Libertaria

*
Several hundred thousand students and workers demonstrated across
Chile August 21 to push for genuine reform of the educational system,
LG

Sintec
(Construction
workers union with 8000 members) is led by Cristián Vivar,an
anarchist, and is part of a general resurgence of anarchism within
the Chilean trade union movement. They are also involved with the
dockers, wood workers, retail and municipal workers as well as this
year, the election of FEL member Melissa Sepulvada to the presidency
of the Chilean Student Federation. The
Asociación
Chilena de Seguridad
(ACHS) with 1200 members,
presided
over by another libertarian, Víctor Quijada who is also a director
of the Unión
Clasista de Trabajadores,
a rival federation of the mainstream CUT.

According
to Left Libertarian, Manu García, this development is not recent.
"We worked quietly for some years. Not only the relation with
FEL and the unions, but the presence of libertarian militants already
in the unions."

The
Federation of Argentine Worker Cooperatives (Federación
Argentina de Cooperativas de Trabajadores Autogestionados -FACTA-
) is formalizing its entry into the CTA. (Argentine Workers Confederation)

FACTA
groups together 60 coops with about 2000 members. For the CTA this
incorporation helps bolster class unity and adds a dimension
distinct from that of the usual boss-worker relation. FACTA will be
invitede to participate in the next Congress of CTA and will bring
with it the demands specific to self-managed workers.